The invention relates to a disk brake pad for rail or utility vehicles including an anchor plate and a plurality of frictional bodies secured to the anchor plate.
Disk brakes are highly loaded components of vehicles. They must in part decelerate considerable masses and bring them to rest within the shortest possible time. By reason of their high weight, rail and utility vehicles require high braking moments, which must be transmitted by the brake pads.
Good transmission of the braking force from the disk brake pad to the brake disk is necessary for an effective braking process. It has transpired that large area frictional bodies can transmit particularly large braking moments to the brake disk. There is, however, the risk in the wet that such frictional bodies can no longer develop the same braking action as in the dry. People refer also to xe2x80x9cwet fadingxe2x80x9d.
Better wet running properties are obtained if the brake pads are divided into a plurality of smaller frictional bodies. Cylindrical frictional bodies are known from DE-C 19727705 which are welded or riveted to the anchor plate. The frictional bodies of this known frictional body arrangement are connected only at discrete points, for instance by means of a central rivet, to the anchor plate. As a result of the high braking moments and lever forces, such point connections can come free, in operation. This results in a reduction of the available braking capacity and, under certain circumstances, destruction of the entire brake disk. The better wet running properties of known multi-element brake pads were thus at the expense of the stability of these pads.
It is the object of the invention to provide a brake pad whose effectiveness is independent of the weather and which may be economically manufactured and has a good stability.
DE-29508322 U discloses a brake pad for disk brakes for rail vehicles in which at least one block of a pressed frictional material is secured to a carrier plate. Disposed between the frictional material block and the carrier plate is an intermediate metallic plate constituting a riveting base. The frictional material block is fastened to the wall surface, remote from the carrier plate, of the intermediate plate by means of mechanical or non-mechanical connecting means. Large area intermediate plates are connected to the carrier plate with a plurality of rivets; with large subdivision of the frictional bodies and relatively small intermediate plates only one respective rivet is provided. The use of the intermediate plates serves the purpose of making reuse of the carrier plate possible, notwithstanding the use of rivet connections, with good economical usage of the frictional material. Improvement of the wet running characteristics is neither sought therein nor achieved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,108 discloses another disk brake pad for rail or utility vehicles in which a plurality of cylindrical or polygonal pad elements are mounted by means of a respective central point connection on a resilient arm of an intermediate plate. The latter is secured to a pad carrier.
It is the object of the invention to provide a brake pad whose effectiveness is independent of the weather and which may be economically manufactured and has a good stability.
A first solution to this object resides in accordance with the invention in the features of claim 1.
A second solution to the said object resides in accordance with the invention in the features of claim 7